Freedom, Health, and Privacy – Purity 1441

Welcome to the MT for Christ 247 podcast. I'm M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or tune into us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of a sunrise sky over the lush green grass of a local golf course comes to us from M.j. Clark, who shared this photo on social media back on August 5th with no comments. Well, it is the Tuesday after Labor Day, and as much as I would like to be able to say no comment about certain aspects of my life when I write on the blog, my semi-daily encouragements are intended to inspire a lifestyle of freedom that comes from Christian discipleship, which demands honesty and transparency. Unfortunately, in terms of parenzy, my complete confession— parenzy— my complete confession on the blog, my words can and will be used against me. I have no qualms about being radically honest about my life on the blog, but I can feel guilt, shame, or condemnation when my parents, particularly my mother, says, 'I saw what you wrote on the blog today,' or they come right out with criticism or chastisement over what I wrote. What I did, what I shouldn't do, what I should do, etc. And the Freedom in Christ course, and in my life coaching practice, I teach that the first rule of Christian discipleship is that— that should be adopted is telling the truth, you know, or stop lying. Um, but I— because I try to be honest, I offer the advice with the addendum that your words can and will be used against you. Uh, there is great freedom in practicing honesty and full transparency, but beware, you you will be judged for it and may be ostracized because of it. There are consequences for deciding to live an honest life, and you must be willing to accept them to be free. One major consequence of being honest and having a blog is a loss of privacy. Um, if I want to be— if I want to honestly write about what life on the path of Christian discipleship is really like, I have to share my day-to-day experiences, and while I have gotten used to writing about my life, I sometimes forget that my words can easily be misconstrued or that the news I share can cause offense or concern. Recently, I shared how I was experiencing cold symptoms and had sought healing through prayer, hydration, vitamin C, and zinc. I documented what I believed to be quick healing, only to have the cold symptoms reemerge a day later. And how they stubbornly refused to disappear. This sharing was met with some negative feedback as one subreddit community took down my post because they, they claimed that my post encouraged people not to seek medical attention. They also recommended that I see a doctor. Um, that caused me to test myself for COVID-19, which was negative. And when I saw I didn't have that dreaded disease, I figured it would just be a matter of days before my symptoms went away. I would feel burdened by symptoms one day and feel relief the next. And I suppose that I would, you know, just one more— it would be one more day until I felt better again. During this, of course, because I blog about my life, I also received concerned texts from my mother insisting I retest or go to the doctor. Because of my negative testing result, though, and my past experience with healthcare, and because I don't you know, I thought I just had to ride out the symptoms for one more day. I didn't see the need to retest or see a doctor. I was getting better, right? But I wasn't. Uh, the congestion settled in my chest over the weekend, and I decided to go to the emergency care, uh, care facility in Malta, New York on Sunday to discover that, oh yes, I needed antibiotics to fight this thing off, as I suspected. Um, but the congestion was significant enough to be seen in a chest X-ray, uh, giving me the diagnosis of pneumonia sinusitis— titis, whatever, um, pneumonia, uh, which will keep me out of work until at least Friday. Um, I have to follow up with my regular doctor this week, uh, to see how the antibiotic treatments work to clear my lungs. Um, but, uh, yeah, I'll be out of work till Friday after, um, Sunday's emergent care visit visit to emergent care. I spent Sunday and all day yesterday in bed while my medication helped my body to fight the disease. It has been a long couple of days, and this morning I am currently free of the persistent headache that I was experiencing, and the congestion in my chest seems significantly less than what it was. So I'm hoping and praying, of course, that I will be completely healed soon. I am under doctor's orders not to go to work, so I will be resting during the day today. But this evening, unless my health takes an unexpected turn for the worst, I will be launching a Freedom in Christ course, uh, online and feel confident that I'm up to the task. Even though I was in bed all day yesterday, I still met with a life coaching client via Zoom for an hour. So I know I have the capacity to speak, listen, and present the Freedom material to a new batch of guys. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do in these men's lives, and I believe that God is restoring me to health, um, just in time to deliver the freedom message. A big part of success in life or ministry lies in the ability to show up, so I will do my best to show up tonight and trust the Lord to use our meeting to encourage this latest bunch of freedom seekers to draw closer to him and to become the people that he created them to be. My purpose, right, actually, yeah, we shared the text on this one. My purpose in life is to encourage others to seek the Lord, to assist them in discovering their identity and freedom in Christ, and to demonstrate what it is like to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ in the real world. I may not do things perfectly, but I will try to be honest about what I encounter along the path of Christian discipleship, even if the going gets tough. Or it leads to a loss of privacy and negative responses from people I know or don't know. Uh, this is the narrow path after all. We want to show it for what it is, a path that can have its troubles and trials, but always leads to peace. In the depths of my suffering over the last 2 days, as I was wrapped in a feverish delirium and basically unable to do much of anything, I never stopped talking to God. I asked him for help and healing and thanked him for his presence and for who he is. And this morning, I know he has been faithful to help me as I look forward to tonight's Freedom in Christ course to tell a new batch of guys about the wonders of his love and the power of his Spirit in our lives when we make the simple decision to believe the truth and to keep on walking and talking with with God. Let's see, then we move along. Today's Bible verse, uh, come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on for the forgiveness of sins, and today's verse is Hebrews 10:14, which says, for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Today's verse is the third of three passages of scripture that fall under the 16th point of the Our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sins. And the 16th point is, in love, Jesus died to make us holy. We are without blemish. This more— today's verse reminds us that it is by one offering, the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ, that God has made us perfect for all time. This verse also shares the reality of a glorified state of sanctification. Perfected for all time, and the present process of those who are, quote unquote, being sanctified. We are and will be sanctified, and we are currently being sanctified, which means that we are accepted as holy already and forever in one sense, and are working it out in our daily lives in another sense. We are completely accepted by the Lord when we put our faith in Jesus, but are further drawn to be the people he creates us to be after we are saved. That's the Christian life. We reflect God's light in us and see how it transforms us as we grow. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist us in our daily walk. Um, and today we continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament with Stephen F. Allford.. And in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture every day, twice a day actually. Um, and today's chapter is 2 Timothy 4, and from that chapter he shares a portion of verse 17, which says, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, and I was delivered. And Stephen Alford writes, here is a blessed verse for these days of real trial. For verse 10, Paul From verse 10, Paul enumerates some very real trials that he was called a bear. Yet in verse 17, he says, but for in spite of all, the Lord stood with me, not by me, but with me. There is no trial or affliction in which he, bless his name, does not stand with me. He also writes, strengthen me. When I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10. His grace is sufficient. He not only stands with me but also strengthens my weakness, delivered me. He not only strengthens me but also saves me out of the mouth of the lion. And Albert ends by praying, praise his holy name. Amen. Yeah, he stands with you. And he strengthens you and he delivers you. And that's, that's our Lord. That's our personal, very personal God, the invisible, immaterial, personal God that cares about us and, and will help us in times of need and will be with us. You know, as I've stated, like, I've been suffering quite a bit over the last couple of days, and, um, I got nothing. I had nothing but the Lord, you know. Um, I just ride out, ride out the disease. And, uh, in the midst of it, I didn't know what to do with myself. Um, basically laid in bed, and I decided to watch The Chosen. And we went from season 1 to somewhere in season 3 over the last couple of days. And, uh, as I watched the shows and I, you know, remembered who, who Jesus is and, uh, remember who he is in my life. And, uh, there was no one else I, you know, wanted to spend time with except for the Lord, you know, in, in my suffering. So, uh, I feel much better today, and, um, it's because I know the Lord is with me and in, you know, in the depths of your suffering, you know, you think the worst case scenarios, they die, die from disease, or someday you will die. And, you know, there was a certain level, the level of peace there, um, that God is with you and he won't leave you. You know, there's no, there's no substitute for the Lord. So I encourage a life of faith. And we ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? Uh, if not, I can understand why, because, uh, usually you have a sinful lifestyle like I used to have, and, um, you know, you don't think God will want anything to do with you, or you like your sin more than you like being saved. Um, you get angry at God because you don't want to change, but God's got a better plan for your life than any sinful thing you got going on, whether it's addiction or, you know, sex or lust or whatever. Um, nothing compares to the joy that the Lord gives you, and he can lead you in paths of righteousness and health, uh, like you don't even know. He cares about you. He doesn't want you to live the way you live. He wants you to surrender to his will and his life for you. Um, and when we do that, we discover the fruit of the Spirit in our lives of peace, joy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and patience, and self-control. And, uh, it's that lifestyle that I've discovered, and it's what I point to. And, uh, when you do that, he'll lead you to do things you never thought you would do. You get free, for one, and then you know, go into ministry maybe, uh, where you encourage others to discover the path of Christian discipleship and find freedom. Um, so I've been blessed to be given the opportunity to lead Celebrate Freedom, the support group at Star Point Church, on Wednesday nights at 6:30 PM. Because of my health condition, I won't be there this Wednesday, but my team, uh, the Celebrate Freedom team, Debbie W. and Scott Salvador, Jess Wagner and, um, Brian Miller will be in attendance, uh, to, uh, encourage you and teach the lesson this week, um, the faithful. And, uh, I couldn't be happier to be part of, uh, something that's so, so awesome, uh, to help people. And, uh, so I won't be there because of my health condition, but, um, they will be there to keep a light on for anyone who anybody wants to show up to Step Out Faith and Get Free. And that's for people in the Capital District of New York. For anybody outside of the Capital District of New York, we encourage you to find or increase your freedom in Christ by joining one of our podcast classes on YouTube, where we have several different classes basically that we've done in the past that we put up on YouTube so you can enjoy. Uh, Freedom, Freedom in Christ is one. Bondage Breaker, Victory Over the Darkness, and our Celebrate Freedom discipleship course. We're all available, uh, for you to encourage you to find your freedom in Christ. So we encourage you to check those out. And, uh, we ask the question finally: are you empty for Christ too? If so, great, keep walking and talking with God. If not, just ask, ask for the Lord to reveal himself to you, and, uh, he will. Um, and you do that with a prayer. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Thank you so much for all that you do for us, Lord. We thank you for the healing you're bringing into my life. I thank you for all the things you've done for me and the purpose you've given me for my life, to share your glory and share your love with others. Um, Lord, we just pray for anyone who's reading or listening to this message, that they'd be encouraged that they'd walk in faith with you and that you'd come alongside them in their prayer requests, Lord, because we all need your help, Lord, in so many ways. And so we're asking for help today. And, uh, Lord, we ask for you to guide us and heal us and, uh, to lead us where you want us to go through the— through this day, uh, trusting in you. And, uh, Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you. We pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.